I wouldn't call a drop of 16000 in 2012 "astounding". It is 0.5% of the entire workforce. 6000 of those 16000 were from the public sector, so it was really just

I wouldn't call a drop of 16000 in 2012 "astounding". It is 0.5% of the entire workforce. 6000 of those 16000 were from the public sector, so it was really just 10000 workplaces lost in the private sector in 2012 (Jan-Nov). If I look at the statistics at http://www.dst.dk/pukora/epub/Nyt/2013/NR350.pdf http://www.dst.dk/pukora/epub/Nyt/2013/NR350.pdf I see a drop of unemployed of 10000 since October 2012. I don't know if that number directly translates into 10000 new jobs of the kind that were lost in your article. But I think it is hard to determine if the 16000 mentioned in the article is just normal fluctuation over a 11 months. With that said, the 160000 jobs lost since 2008 is significant, but unemployment was at a record low at that time. From the graph (I linked to), it looks like most of those 160000 jobs were lost in 2008 and 2009. Do you have any numbers that do not mask pensioner's and "not- ready-for-work" people? It is hard make any actual judgment in any direction, if all the statistics are deemed untrustworthy or politically biased.